S'wonderful, Suella

by liberal japonicus

Opening a new thread, pretty amazed by the happenings in the UK. This analysis of Suella Braverman's resignation letter can provide some background.

Braverman is an odd bird, imo.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/19/who-is-suella-braverman-home-office

And, most importantly, a round up of social media jokes
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/19/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-suella-braverman-your-removal-is-complete

Talk about this or anything else you like

Comments

[Pro Bono]

"We placed a moratorium on fracking in England with immediate effect. Having listened to local communities, we have ruled out changes to the planning system. We will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely." - Conservative Party Manifesto, 2019

"This is not a motion on fracking. This is a confidence motion in the government." - Conservative Deputy Chief Whip, in a message to Conservative MPs imposing a "three-line whip" to force them to vote against a motion to allocate parliamentary time for a bill against fracking.

"This is not a confidence vote" Conservative climate minister, in the House of Commons shortly before the vote, when it was clear that several Conservative MPs would not support the government.

[Michael Cain]

Copied from the previous thread...

I saw something today by some group that claims to map polling numbers to seats in Parliament that asserts if an election were held today, the Tories would win one seat, Labour would get an absolute majority, and the SNP would be the loyal opposition. The last one seems astounding to me -- the second largest group of MPs would be advocating for "break the country up."

I find the latter particularly fascinating since I argue that in 25-30 years, "break the country up" will be a mainstream idea in the US.

[wj]

Also copied

I argue that in 25-30 years, "break the country up" will be a mainstream idea in the US.

The challenge will be to figure out how to draw the geographic lines between the parts. Unless you are willing to have one country be a horde of (mostly, but not entirely, urban) islands dotting a lightly populated sea which is the other.

[liberal japonicus]

Fortunately, the UK is already 'pre-fractured'...

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"When you aim for the tofu, you best not miss"

Words to live by.

[nous]

Two can play that copy game...

The challenge will be to figure out how to draw the geographic lines between the parts. Unless you are willing to have a horde of (mostly, but not entirely, urban) islands dotting a lightly populated sea.

Well, if we are seeing a roll-up of the Enlightenment - which is what the hard right here and in Europe is advocating for, and the idea of the liberal nation state has lost its legitimacy, then we may be seeing new conditions under which the other two rival governing system from Renaissance Europe find a second chance.

What you describe there is basically the model of the Italian City States - weak territorial integrity, but dominant economies protected by professional military forces.

The other model would be the Hansa, which would have the big corporations taking the place of the big city governments as the governing body.

The more the rich and the paranoid right turn against federal oversight, the better the conditions become for these other two models to compete in the resulting vacuum.

[Hartmut]

What about a Paul (crack)Pot movement that will forcefully evacuate and abandon the big cities* because the true spirit of the people can only be rural?

*if need by by starving them into submission which would also reduce the excess liberal and minority population in advance of the re-ruralization.

[Nigel]

Suelluva mess.

(Actual headline this morning.)

[Nigel]

The appointment of Braverman to cabinet by both of the last administrations is symptomatic of the degradation of the Conservative party.

Top lawyers slam Suella Braverman for wrecking UK’s reputation
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/12/top-lawyers-slam-suella-braverman-for-wrecking-uks-reputation

[Nigel]

I think we are about to hear the first concession speech to … a lettuce
https://twitter.com/kakape/status/1583073547039432706

[Girl from the North Country]

Well, that's it for the Truss administration. And they promise a leadership election to be completed "within the next week".

For anybody still interested in whether there are any sane conservatives left in the world apart from wj, I recommend the piece I copied over in the other thread, by Danny Finkelstein. In order to avoid the kind of polarisation which ends in catastrophe, I do think it's important to remember that the new brand of what he calls "punk libertarians", in both the US and the UK, are not the only kinds of conservatives.

[Pro Bono]

The bookie's favourites to be next leader are Rishi Sunak, the candidate rejected by party members in favour of Liz Truss, and Penny Mordaunt, the candidate ranked third by MPs behind both Sunak and Truss.

I don't see how it can be anyone but Sunak. But the mad right has a record of doing things I think impossible.

[wj]

What about a Paul (crack)Pot movement that will forcefully evacuate and abandon the big cities* because the true spirit of the people can only be rural?

Too many rich people would be inconvenienced. Not to mention having their wealth impacted -- both immediately and from the reduced number of people to exploit.

Not that the crackpot fringe won't try it. But it's a huge country, and there just aren't enough of them. Enough to do enormous damage, certainly, and kill a bunch of people -- especially if they focus on schools and other soft targets. But not to clear out even a medium sized city.

[wj]

the mad right has a record of doing things I think impossible.

Or maybe they demand Truss back, regardless. After all, why let reality intrude? It's just not their thing.

[wj]

whether there are any sane conservatives left in the world apart from wj

I'm sure there are. A better question might be whether there are any sane libertarians, other than Charles.

[Pete]

Lettuce for the win! Can we do an indictment one with Trump and a Jack O’Lantern or something?

Has anyone been elected in as PM in a vote of No Confidence?

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Not to upstage Charles, but

"rumors of my sanity have been greatly exaggerated"

[novakant]

Lost in all the commotion and more or less ignored by the media was the passing of the scandalous "Public Order Bill" that would turn the UK into something like China or Russia if it is passed by the Lords:

https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1583010285643628544

This week, MPs agreed that peaceful protesters, whether convicted of any crime or not, can be electronically tagged, forced to report to the police, forbidden to associate with others or to attend or encourage further protests.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/public-order-bill-suella-braverman-anti-protest/

Last-minute amendment to Public Order Bill would let home secretary slap injunctions on people ‘likely’ to protest

Other measures proposed in the bill include giving courts the power to issue Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs), which can ban individuals from attending protests.

Amnesty International said the proposed law on SDPOs would “go further” than similar legislation in Russia, by giving courts the power to issue them without a conviction. The range of conditions that can be imposed on individuals under the orders include 24/7 GPS monitoring and restricted internet usage.

[CharlesWT]

"..., can be electronically tagged, ..."

Some Chinese expat protesters might consider this a positive if they are kidnapped by Chinese nationals. Although the most recent known kidnapping occurred in broad daylight in view of many witnesses including the police.

[CharlesWT]

King Charles is on his way to breaking his mother's record of 15 PMs...

[Nigel]

I see Boris Johnson has declared he'll be a candidate.

I'm liking the view from Germany.
https://twitter.com/benphillips76/status/1583068995527200768

[Michael Cain]

The challenge will be to figure out how to draw the geographic lines between the parts.

Well, I only argue two things. (1) The dividing issues in 25-30 years aren't going to be the ones fueling today's urban/rural divide. They'll be quite practical concerns with addressing the consequences of climate change. (2) One of the fault lines will be down the center of the Great Plains.

There are a number of ways to describe that line. Roughly 104° W; the 16" annual precipitation line, where agriculture becomes all about the water; the dividing line between Western and Eastern Interconnects for electricity; the point where the "standard model" for distance between towns, the size of counties, etc broke down.

[wj]

One of the fault lines will be down the center of the Great Plains.

Roughly the divide between places which are having much colder than usual temperatures of late, and those of us having much hotter ones.

[Girl from the North Country]

BoJo trying to stand again is presumably why the 1922 is saying that even to stand a candidate needs 100 MPs' signatures.

Nothing would surprise me.

[wj]

Nothing would surprise me.

Perhaps discovering that fragmentation has gone so far that nobody gets the required 100 MP signatures...?

[nous]

Push comes to shove, I think Sunak could get to 100 if the alternative were abject failure and ceding power to Labor in the next election - which I think it is. Truss was already appointing his people to the positions of those who vacated her own appointments. I think that points to a shift.

[JanieM]

Roughly the divide between places which are having much colder than usual temperatures of late, and those of us having much hotter ones.

Who's having colder than usual? Not being snarky, I hadn't heard this. Our Maine October has been more like May/June during the day, though we've had some frosty nights. Certainly on average warmer than usual.

[Priest]

Cold front rolled in overnight Monday here in Atlanta, this morning's low of 32 puts it in a multi-day 11th place tie for a low temperature on any day in October (only 10 other days on record with lower lows, record low for the month is 28).

Highs will be back into low 70s by Saturday, lows back in the low 50s all next week. So a fairly unusual early cold snap for these parts.

[wj]

Who's having colder than usual?

The maps I've seen have a big area centered between Indiana and eastern Pennsylvania. And extending from Maine to Georgia to Arkansas to Minnesota.

[wj]

Oh yes, and into Canada, too, of course.

[Michael Cain]

Who's having colder than usual?

Parts of the Midwest. Omaha, where my sister lives, had highs in the 40s on Monday and Tuesday. It's a fairly common pattern for parts of the year: a wave in the polar jet stream cuts right down the middle of the Great Plains with warmer weather to the west and significantly colder to the east. The jet often turns sharply back north before it gets to New England, keeping the cold air from getting that far east.

The current pattern is breaking down. We touched 80 today here, but expect a chance of snow Sunday night.

An exaggerated version of the same pattern causes the "arctic blasts" in the Midwest and upper South the Weather Channel is so fond of. The climate models suggest that added heat energy in the atmosphere will make extreme waves (and the associated blasts) more common.

[Michael Cain]

Who's having colder than usual?

Parts of the Midwest. Omaha, where my sister lives, had highs in the 40s on Monday and Tuesday. It's a fairly common pattern for parts of the year: a wave in the polar jet stream cuts right down the middle of the Great Plains with warmer weather to the west and significantly colder to the east. The jet often turns sharply back north before it gets to New England, keeping the cold air from getting that far east.

The current pattern is breaking down. We touched 80 today here, but expect a chance of snow Sunday night.

An exaggerated version of the same pattern causes the "arctic blasts" in the Midwest and upper South the Weather Channel is so fond of. The climate models suggest that added heat energy in the atmosphere will make extreme waves (and the associated blasts) more common.

[Michael Cain]

Sorry about the double post. Things seem to be erratic.

[Hartmut]

Time to build a mountain range along the US Northern border. Are any on sale currently? Maybe Jabbabonk could trade the Urals for Eastern Europe when he gets re-installed as POTUS. They should be about the right lenghth to do the job to keep the foreign weather out. The Great Lakes will probably have to be declared swamps and drained though (Jared will organize the sell-off of the water).

[wj]

The Great Lakes will probably have to be declared swamps and drained though (Jared will organize the sell-off of the water).

No, no, Hartmut! Global warming (necessarily rebranded, of course) will make the shores of the Great Lakes prime resort territory. Replacing all that flooded Florida coastline. TFG will seize all the land, ostensibly for his new wall mountain range, and then sell off the convenient excess to himself. (Probably for $1.00.)

Actually, he'll likely come up with a better scam. But my imagination is inadequate to quess what.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

The Canadians will pay for the mountain range/wall.

To keep the wildlings out.

[Pro Bono]

the mad right has a record of doing things I think impossible.

Right on cue, Boris Johnson is now second favourite.

[Hartmut]

To save on transport costs and to stay American one could of course also unfold and stretch the mountains of Alaska. To pay for that one could resell Alaska to the Russians afterwards (at a loss with the difference being paid to Kushner & f-i-l Co. as realtor fee).
The Urals option is to be kept open for the Southern border.

[JanieM]

Nice gig if you can get it.

[bobbyp]

When I read this today, I immediately thought of wj.

[novakant]

A little explainer a to how the next UK PM will be chosen

1.) Tory MPs will nominate their preferred candidates until Monday 2 PM.

2.) Only nominees with at least 100 votes will be considered - so there will be 3 candidates at most (as there are 300 + something Tory MPs).

3.) If only one candidate gets more than 100 (unlikely) they will automatically be PM.

4.) If three candidates get more than 100 (unlikely) the MPs will vote again to eliminate the weakest.

5.) Once there are two candidates with more than 100 votes, the Tory party members will decide who will PM in an online vote (no kidding).

My hope is that it Tory MPs vote for Sunak over Johnson and then the Party members vote for Johnson - ultimate chaos ensues and we will have a general election first thing in the new year...

More detail regarding the process here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62068930

[Girl from the North Country]

On bobbyp's link:

Yes. Anybody who can remember back knows that after the 2016 election I fought sapient, and others, on calling Trump and the GOP in general Nazis and fascists. I do believe in being accurate in one's terminology, however tempting it is to use invective on one's malevolent opponents. But as time has gone by, it has become clear that even GOP people who were not fascists to begin with have been more than happy to oil the way to fascism, and that LGM piece accurately describes where we are now, and could be soon. People may remember an exchange I (and Pro Bono, and hsh and others) had with McKinney here on August 5th and 6th this year, when he (hilariously) self-righteously maintained he would condemn Hungarian fascists at CPAC, but that actually there was no remotely credible fascist threat in the US or anywhere else to compare with (and I quote) the leftward drift of the Progressive wing of the Democratic party which is, in many ways, far more problematic, than Trump because Trump is sui generis and whatever "movement" he has created is personal to him. Not surprisingly, McKinney disappeared immediately afterward, after being given some salutary reminders.

[wj]

Nice gig if you can get it.

Quite possibly worth the price, just to get rid of her.

[wj]

bobby, thanks for the link.

Did you catch the (almost certainly an) error where they said "a criminal law regime that will not arrest drag queens or take children away from parents who teach their children that drag queens are basically harmless". [Emphasis added] Definitely an oops!

Otherwise, definitely be glad to see the last of them.

[wj]

Not quite fascist, but here's why Republicans don't get far in California:
California Republican likens U.S. Senate run to Christian mission in ‘dark continent of Africa’
(Not worth going to the link, but included for completeness.)

Actually, we do have a (moderate, pro-choice) Republican running for Controller. So there are still a few of us. But mostly it's crazies all the way down. With luck, he might even win. Just as a reminder that, if the crazies would crawl back under their rock, we might once again become a two party state. Making the Democrats come up with higher quality candidates (not, e.g. Newsom the empty suit) would be a good thing.

[nous]

The crazies aren't crawling under any rocks any time soon. They are too busy out fundraising their competition and splashing the cash around on a national level. That's how people like Michelle Steel get their dark money to play on the paranoia of the Vietnamese community and redbait her opponent.

The trend nationally is away from the moderating moves of CA towards the dismantling of democratic checks and balances. Not enough is being done to fight this, and the vandals still have enough momentum to do even more damage. And I don't think that anyone has a clue yet how to stop any of this within the limits and protocols set by the Constitution.

I remain hopeful, but my hope is not fixed within any institution.

[hairshirthedonist]

And I don't think that anyone has a clue yet how to stop any of this within the limits and protocols set by the Constitution.

I'm prone to sports analogies. Two football teams are playing. One of the teams, the Elephants, insists that it should be allowed 5 downs to get 10 yards while the other team, the Donkeys, still only gets 4. If the refs don't allow it, they claim the refs are biased against them and, if possible, replace the refs with ones who will allow it. Meanwhile, the Elephants also scream about how much they love the rule book and how the Donkeys hate it, especially when the Donkeys are trying to maintain the rules and keep them the same for both teams.

Both teams want to win. Only one wants to do so only while playing by the established rules, which are supposed to be the same for both teams. The other team simply wants to win, whether by the rules or otherwise. Maybe they'll just shoot the opposing players if it comes to it.

[wj]

On a totally different topic (except it isn't), I found this to be a fascinating column.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/iran-secular-shift-gamaan.html

It isn't different because it suggests that, even if the religious fundamentalists succeed in their project in the US, their long-term prospects may be dire.** Far better, of course, if they simply fail. But the compulsive optimist in me (no surprise to anyone here) can be glad of the prospect that even a disasterous loss for the rest of us might not be permanent.

** Preferably more quickly than in If This Goes On. Iran give hope there, too.

[CharlesWT]

The powers that be in Iran encouraged a high birth rate. Now the results of that policy are coming for them.

[wj]

The powers that be in Iran encouraged a high birth rate. Now the results of that policy are coming for them.

For them, as for religious reactionaries here, the tragedy is that they cannot achieve what they really want and need: new individuals springing into being already at minimum 50 years old -- and so with little patience with "those kids today". Otherwise they are doomed to see their views on the wrong end of demographics.

[bobbyp]

Definitely an oops!

I had to read it twice and let my lips move, but no, it was not an error.

and so with little patience with "those kids today".

wish I had enough fingers to count all the hippies I knew back when who are today stone cold reactionaries. Tough at times to tell if the tide of history is going out....or coming in.

[wj]

I had to read it twice and let my lips move, but no, it was not an error.

Guess I need leading by the hand on this one.

They say they want to preserve a thorough-going capitalist economic order that tolerates

• fantastical levels of economic inequality,
• a modest welfare state,
• no-fault divorce,
• legal abortion,
• a criminal law regime that will not arrest drag queens or take children away from parents who teach their children that drag queens are basically harmless,

And here I thought they were freaking out over drag queens.

[wj]

wish I had enough fingers to count all the hippies I knew back when who are today stone cold reactionaries

What's impressive to me is how many made the move without hitting anywhere in between. It's like they need to be extreme, but which extreme is secondary (to the extent that it's relevant at all).

[JanieM]

wj -- it's confusing because of who "they" means.

The "they" in that passage is "By this definition, the conservatives in America today are Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the “liberal” wing of the SCOTUS, etc."

There's a point being made about where on the political spectrum (some notional left-right thingie) our current administration actually is. They are not flaming left-wing radicals, to say the very least.

[JanieM]

No matter how much the lunatic right shrieks that they are.

[JanieM]

It doesn't help with the confusion that an economy-related left-right spectrum (in the "original" (?) meaning of left-right) has been mapped onto a culture war spectrum.

[wj]

Thanks, Janie. I see where I got lost.

[bobbyp]

Joe Biden, that 'effing communist, came out today against abolishing the debt limit.

Is this gross and negligent political malpractice or 12th level zen politics?

I'm sure the Times will set me straight.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Jonah "doughy pantload" Goldberg explained this with the title of his Magnus Derpus Liberal Fascism.

Because it's not that liberals are fascists, it's that, from the point of view occupied by the modern GOP* fascists are liberals.

(*or MAGAt: go to the right of anyone not confined in a mental institution, circa 1980, then make a right turn, go to the outer solar system, and plunge into Uranus)

[wj]

Joe Biden, that 'effing communist, came out today against abolishing the debt limit.

Is this gross and negligent political malpractice or 12th level zen politics?

Bet on the latter. Assume, for the sake of discussion (and because I have no clue what his opinion actually is), that Biden thinks the debt limit should be eliminated. It would be terrible politics to say so just weeks before an election. Doubly so a midterm election. Far, far better to wait until after the election. And then, most likely, get the legislation to do so attached to the spending bill (so it can't be filibustered).

Actually, if the Republicans shut down the government by refusing to raise the debt limit, that would be the point where you run on eliminating it. But it needs to be planned out far ahead of the election.

[Girl from the North Country]

I'm sure the Times will set me straight.

A total tangent, but can we agree on a protocol where the NYT is the New York Times and The (or the) Times is the Times of London (admittedly a Murdoch paper, but a more respectable one than some others, and for which some good people write)? I have already encountered some confusion over this, and since I sometimes post articles from the latter, and frequently from the former, it may continue to confuse....

[Girl from the North Country]

Nice gig if you can get it

Various people, including Keir, are calling for her to decline the money. I wouldn't hold my breath. I've had a conversation tonight with close friends, serious lefties, who were discussing whether it was right to call her stupid, as opposed to e.g. reckless. I reminded them that when she was first running for the leadership, her old tutor at Oxford remarked that she had always been extraordinarily sure of the rightness of her views/opinions, even when shown contradictory documentary evidence. An interesting insight, I think.

[GftNC]

And, on cue, this is Matthew Parris again in the Times today, this time about the hideous prospect of a BoJo return. As an ex-Tory MP, his analysis of the behind-the-scenes is more insightful than that of many:

Put a stake through this vampire’s heart now
Boris Johnson leaves only political death or injury in his wake so a return could kill the party and would wound the country

Matthew Parris
Friday October 21 2022, 9.00pm, The Times

Boris? Again? That charlatan? They cannot be serious. Kipling was not wrong: “The Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire/ And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire.”

Can Tory MPs really be contemplating supporting the scoundrel who only weeks ago they rightly dumped? Have they so quickly forgotten why they dumped him? The rascal whose short second administration mislaid 80 ministers, 55 of them within three days only this summer, more than tripling parliament’s previous record for mass resignations?

The hedgies’ poodle who first proposed the idea that helped to kill his successors’ budget: slashing taxes for the rich? The dissimulator charged with lying to parliament and now at risk of being suspended as an MP by the privileges committee, and even kicked out in a by-election.

A return for the “king over the water” (in this case the Caribbean)? I say again, really? Boris, the impostor who just before his fall earned (in a YouGov poll) a public approval rating of minus 53 per cent? Has his party already forgotten its drubbing under Boris Johnson’s leadership at the local government elections in May this year? Or the by-elections lost in Chesham & Amersham and Tiverton & Honiton?

Johnson was never a crowd pleaser except as an entertainer. He was never a notably popular prime minister. All the polling says the same: he carries no conviction and isn’t even widely liked.

How, then, are his supporters persuading colleagues to take him seriously? Two linked efforts are afoot this weekend. They mirror the tactics that pushed Liz Truss over the line.

Momentum is being manufactured through creating an impression that Johnson is already on his way to victory. Mysterious reports on social media suggest he’s surging ahead among those MPs who are declaring — but the identities of some of these are undisclosed. They will (we’re assured) reveal themselves “later”. The sense of movement this creates is giving those many Conservative MPs who still keep their own counsel the idea that this man is a winner, and (say quieter MPs to themselves), “we’d better declare for him early, as we know he rewards supporters and freezes out the rest”.

Exaggerating his progress then swells his declared support, giving Tory activists the (false) idea that Johnson is popular among MPs — thus influencing their own vote because they rightly wish to back someone the parliamentary party wants as its leader. This is precisely what happened when Truss ran for the leadership, and MPs who I know thought her useless started issuing statements praising her to the skies. Tory activists saw and digested this praise. It is not certain she would have won without that skilful creation of a self-reinforcing loop of prediction, careerist flattery, and gullible activists. Sir Graham Brady and his 1922 committee have done the nation no favours by missing the opportunity this crisis presented to sidestep the party membership.

No conspiracist in normal times, I have become convinced Johnson and his gang promoted Truss’s candidacy not because they thought she was any good but because they knew she wasn’t. Her failure was to be the launchpad for his return. I cannot disclose what has persuaded me Johnson thought she’d fail, but it confirmed all my suspicions. He knew that only against the backdrop of total mess could he look good.

I’m a Midlander whose own former constituency is almost surrounded by red-wall seats. To new Tory MPs from such seats — the 2019-ers — I would earnestly advise this: don’t let the recent shudder of sellers’ remorse among Tory activists unbalance your judgment. “I miss Boris” is more nostalgic than future-facing, but we do hear it widely repeated, especially from committed Tories and (I’m afraid to say) the posher sort who think Boris “fun”.

He may be; but talk to the uncommitted. You’ll hear the view, of course, that we can imagine having a beer with him, but listen harder and you’ll pick up the deep suspicion that he’s a scamp and a rogue. In easy times a scamp in Downing Street is good theatre. But easy times do not lie ahead, and to voters beginning to agonise about whether their mortgage lender might repossess, politics is about more than drinking companions. Johnson may seem funny now but he won’t this winter. Rishi Sunak may lack comedy genius, but we’ll appreciate his seriousness, his intelligence and grasp when power cuts threaten.

As for Johnson, he’s just playing with us again. If he loses, or withdraws, it’s only a game. But if he wins, it’s still a game. Whatever, we’ll be talking about him, and for Johnson that’s the thrill. Failure would be a pity but obscurity would be worse. Fame or infamy — it’s all in the mix for Johnson because both bring what Johnson most wants: attention. There’s a part of this man that would enjoy the walk to the scaffold: centre stage to the last. Weighed against the horror of being forgotten, Johnson sees the upside of a car crash.

For his party, however, and for the country, the downside is scary indeed. The last thing Britain needs now is a leader who doesn’t know or care about business, economics or even simple book-keeping. That Rishi Sunak, the (quite close) runner-up to Truss, is vastly, incomparably better placed not only to take Britain’s finances through the awful storm ahead but (achingly absent from today’s politics) to impart a sense of seriousness to the running of a country seems so obvious that I have to pinch myself to believe I’m even writing about a possible forthcoming Johnson administration.

In his wake, Johnson leaves only political death or injury. His victory next week could kill the party and would wound the country. Except temporarily, nobody prospers from their association with this man. List all those who’ve been drawn into his close association, personal or political, and ask yourself who among them has found in his company a springboard to their own political success or personal happiness. He has the quality of a vampire: he must kill to live.

“With Boris it isn’t over until it’s over . . . it is now up to his party to see to that,” I wrote here three months ago. “Not,” (I said) “until there’s a stake through his heart can we be sure he’s gone.”

I write it again today, with greater urgency. Sometimes in history we read of an obvious deceiver who just kept cheating his way upwards into fame and power, and say to ourselves, “How shameful we were fooled!” Well, my Tory backbench friends, save yourselves that shame. Stop him now.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/put-a-stake-through-this-vampires-heart-now-0m85j6nb0

[JanieM]

testing

[nous]

The religious fundamentalists worlds will be as thoroughly unmade by climate change as will the world they are fighting so hard against. Their regimes will not survive the pressures of the coming world. Change will swallow them either way.

We heathens have a healthier attitude towards change, but I'd rather keep the magnitude of that change manageable rather than trying my best to eradicate the change I fear to hold onto a world I can't keep.

[Hartmut]

Unfortunately, the world being unmade is right up the true fundamentalist's alley (as opposed to the conperson's who just pretends to be).
These guys believe to have an early exit ticket and that they will watch the disaster as a high production value event from the clouds (=heaven).
The conpeople of course assume that they will have died peacefully of natural causes before the semi-solid digestive final product begins to interact with the rotating air impeller.

The Biblical writers should have added a verse that says that anyone who takes pleasure in watching others suffering involontarily will lose their heavenly greencard instantly and get an express elevator ride down to the other place.

Btw, this kind of sadistic pleasure got already expressed by Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD), it's not an invention by modern day evangelicals.

[GftNC]

I found this interview with Chelsea Manning in the Grauniad interesting, and this part jumped out, about her father's reaction after Waco:

Manning’s father jumped instantly into the “government’s-going-to-take-your-guns mentality”, she says, a position she despises. “It’s an excuse, a rallying call for something deeper and much more sinister. A significant amount of the libertarian strain of American politics is deeply connected to this air of superiority among upper-middle-class white men.” Nonetheless, from a young age Manning learned to maintain a measure of scepticism in relation to the US government, one that she never entirely lost.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/22/chelsea-manning-leaked-military-documents-free-world-prison

[Nigel]

Looks as though the oaf might not get the 100 nominations he requires.
Good news.

[Nigel]

Nice gig if you can get it

To be strictly accurate, the annual £115k is for funding an ex PM’s private office.

It’s still highly debatable whether Truss should take it, but it isn’t a pension.

[novakant]

Good news.

Sure, but what are Sunak/Hunt actually going to do?

Raise taxes and cut spending.

When we're talking about taxes, we're talking about an already squeezed middle class. And when we're talking about cuts we're talking about a funding situation for public services that is already at breaking point:

90% of UK schools will go bust next year, heads warn

Early data from the National Association of Head Teachers – results of a survey of its members are due later this month – shows that 50% of heads say their school will be in deficit this year, with almost all expecting to be in the red by next September,when their reserve run out. This comes as Jeremy Hunt has made clear that all departments, including education, will be expected to make cuts as part of the government’s debt reduction plan, to be announced on 31 October.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/22/exclusive-90-of-uk-schools-will-go-bust-next-year-heads-warn

I really don't see the way forward here, but am happy to be convinced otherwise.

[wj]

I really don't see the way forward here, but am happy to be convinced otherwise.

When you charge off a cliff head first, that is arguably going forward.

How fun for us to have the UK showing us the way (presuming the Republicans take either the House or the Senate, let alone both).

[Girl from the North Country]

I really don't see the way forward here, but am happy to be convinced otherwise.

Well, there's no "good" way forward because we are in a terrible financial hole. But there are less terrible ways forward, enacted by careful, competent people who at least try to target them in the least damaging way possible. Like Pro Bono, I think it's obvious it should be Rishi Sunak, but by God I hope there's a general election soon and Keir and Labour get in.

[bobbyp]

A total tangent, but can we agree on a protocol where the NYT is the New York Times and The (or the) Times is the Times of London....?

it would be easy if we could post those articles in their respective fonts.....banda boom! badda bing!

[Nigel]

I really don't see the way forward here, but am happy to be convinced otherwise

1970s redux.

[novakant]

Good times...

[Michael Cain]

it would be easy if we could post those articles in their respective fonts.....banda boom! badda bing!

The two newspapers do use different fonts, although at small sizes they are nearly indistinguishable. The Times currently uses a font called Times Modern and the New York Times uses a font called NYT-Imperial. Both papers futz with their fonts more often than you might think.

Myself, I don't let web pages choose their own fonts. I go to considerable effort to force everything into either slightly compressed Noto Serif (proportional) or Courier 10 (monospace).

[GftNC]

Andrew Rawnsley, in today's Observer. After this excerpt, he then goes on to trace the downward trajectory beforehand:

Liz Truss will not just go down as the briefest prime minister in our history. She will also be recorded as one of the most calamitous. Many previous occupants of the office have had four or more years at Number 10 without doing the damage she inflicted in 44 days. Tories will now try to turn this unique entry in the book of atrocious political records into a kind of alibi for the rest of them.

As they rush to find a replacement, it will become convenient for Conservatives to portray her short reign as a fever dream from which everyone has now gladly awoken. Mad Queen Liz who put a torch to the British economy? Nothing to do with them.

To use a technical term, this will be a pyramid of bollocks. It requires us to ignore how many figures from the Tory firmament either supported Ms Truss from the outset or sycophantically endorsed her once they calculated she was going to seize the throne. I mean you, Ben Wallace, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid. And you, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt. And I mean many more Tories than I have space to mention. Either they thought her wild gamble would come off, in which case their judgment is as cracked as hers. Or they knew she was a dangerous person with a reckless programme, but backed her nevertheless for career-serving reasons, which is even more disgraceful. She didn’t take Britain to the brink all by herself.

Ms Truss was a disaster, but she was not an accident. Something has gone fundamentally wrong with a party when it hands the premiership to someone so manifestly wrong for the job. And that’s twice in a row, remembering that she was preceded by Mr Johnson. And it will be a hat-trick of wilfully diabolical decisions if the Tories are so deranged that they re-crown the clown prince.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/23/if-tory-party-brings-back-boris-johnson-fit-only-for-straitjacket

[wj]

The Times currently uses a font called Times Modern and the New York Times uses a font called NYT-Imperial.

And here I always thought that The Times used Times New Roman. But apparently not this century. Another bit of my childhood lost. Sigh.

[wj]

I almost missed this.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/19/texas-dna-kits-schools-shootings/

After the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, some children were so badly destroyed that it require DNA analysis to identify them. Some suggested restricting (better yet, banning) private ownership of the kind of guns which do this kind of damage.

Now, the State of Texas has unveiled its "solution": it will provide kits so that parents can gather DNA from their kids. The better to be able to identify their dead children next time -- and assuredly there will be a next time.

The mind boggles.

[JanieM]

@wj: You would think that the vast, vast majority of the people in Texas would look at that and rise up and say these people are murderous lunatics, and vote them out the next chance they got, if they didn't lynch them first.

Nope. I guess enough of the people of Texas are murderous lunatics themselves, in that as far as they're concerned it's better to manage the aftermath of the mass murder of schoolchildren than to prevent the carnage in the first place.

Heaven forbid we should have a world in which kids can go to school without having to be afraid of being gunned down on any given day. The freedom to gun them down is far, far, far more important.

And don't get me started on women's health "care."

[CharlesWT]

Not wise to give your kid's DNA to authorities. San Francisco police have included victims' DNA data from rape kits in searches to match DNA from unrelated crimes.

Parents who get DNA kits from their kids' schools should put them in the same place where they put a lot of other stuff they get from the schools.

[nous]

Texas will fall on the side of murderous lunatics because the founding myth of Texas canonizes the actions of murderous lunatics. It's going to take more than a few slaughters of the innocent before that bit of narrative ceases to poison the Texan identity.

Pay no attention to the kids in Uvalde. Remember the Alamo.

[Girl from the North Country]

Have just heard BoJo has said he is not standing. If this is true, it has to be because (as has seemed increasingly to be the case in the last 24 hours) he was not able to get enough support from MPs. There's been plenty of boosterism by people like Jacob Rees-Mogg, but apparently it hasn't worked. Well, as I say, if true thank God for that.

[JanieM]

It's going to take more than a few slaughters of the innocent before that bit of narrative ceases to poison the Texan identity.

The poison of the Lost Cause narrative is still coursing through the identity of millions of Americans, and not just in the former Confederacy. The antidote remains undiscovered.

[JanieM]

testing

[Michael Cain]

And here I always thought that The Times used Times New Roman. But apparently not this century. Another bit of my childhood lost. Sigh.

Kind of interesting to read the history of all the variations that followed Times New Roman in response to changing printing applications, technologies, and economics. Eg, make it a little bit wider for books, tweak the serifs for printing on cheaper paper.

Or maybe that's just me. My dad worked for the university press when he was in college for a few hours per week to supplement his GI Bill benefits. I was probably one of very few four-year-olds that knew what a floating display was. And possibly one of the few old geeks who is still unhappy that MS Word makes the concept so difficult.

[Nigel]

The oaf claims he had sufficient votes, but has decided the time was not right.

LOL.

The UK is a right mess, but things are looking up slightly compared with yesterday.

[Michael Cain]

So, is he going to be a billionaire populist, or something else?

[wj]

And don't get me started on women's health "care."

Or, as the supposedly "pro-life" folks would put it (should unaccustomed honesty suddenly strike):
Women's health? Don't care.

[Girl from the North Country]

So, is he going to be a billionaire populist, or something else?

If this refers to BoJo, he is famously, perennially short of money (by his own account). This may, or may not, have any connection with his unknown number of children by various women, all of whom he would probably send to private schools at what is now approximately £40k p.a. each, if not more. If he truly looks to be past his sell-by date, politically speaking, it's rather hard to see why billionaires would continue to fund him. This analysis may, of course, be due to my admittedly inadequate imagination about such matters.

[Girl from the North Country]

This is BoJo's statement about why he is withdrawing from the race:

In the last few days I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who suggested that I should once again contest the Conservative party leadership, both among the public and among friends and colleagues in parliament.

I have been attracted because I led our party into a massive election victory less than three years ago – and I believe I am therefore uniquely placed to avert a general election now.

A general election would be a further disastrous distraction just when the government must focus on the economic pressures faced by families across the country.

I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 – and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations, including a proposer and a seconder, and I could put my nomination in tomorrow.

There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.

But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.

And though I have reached out to both Rishi [Sunak] and Penny [Mordaunt] – because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest – we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this.

Therefore I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds.

I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time.

Since he has been sacked from every job he has ever had for lying, one should perhaps take his claim that he has "cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations" (is it just me, or does this sound very Trumpian?) with several pinches of salt. Journalists who were on the plane with him as he dramatically jetted back from his third holiday this summer say he was booed by some of the other passengers. Also, various journalists (and opposition MPs) are understandably asking: "Who paid for this holiday?"

[Michael Cain]

If this refers to BoJo...

I was thinking of Sunak, who seems to have said that the first thing to be done is raise taxes.

[Girl from the North Country]

Michael Cain: oh, that makes sense of course!

Sunak obviously doesn't have tons of room for manoeuvre, but at least he's a grownup. I'm sure he will raise taxes, but his conduct of the furlough scheme when he was Chancellor makes me somewhat hopeful that his cuts (which are by far the most concerning prospect) might be cleverly targeted so as to try to shield the most financially disadvantaged as far as possible. His and his family's wealth has been such an issue that I am pretty sure that will be a major concern for him.

[wj]

His and his family's wealth has been such an issue that I am pretty sure that will be a major concern for him.

But might it not also shield him from the worst criticism for acting on taxes if he raises taxes on the very rich. At minimum, he cannot be accused of doing so to benefit himself. (Unlike, say, Trump.)

[Pro Bono]

16 weeks ago, Sunak resigned as Chancellor because of his disgust with the way Johnson was conducting himself as Prime Minister. Two days ago, Johnson, he claims, flew back to England in the hope that he could persuade Sunak to stand aside in his favour.

If that's true, Johnson is stupider than I thought. If not, what was he really up to?

[Girl from the North Country]

wj: no, that is exactly what I meant - he will be keen to do things that are not overtly (or even really) to benefit the rich too much. I can't remember what if anything he has said about a possible windfall tax on the energy companies; I would have thought that would be an excellent way to raise a lot of cash, and although Truss ruled it out I think Jeremy Hunt ruled it back in.

Pro Bono: I think Johnson believed he was in a much stronger position than he was. There were plenty of people stoking that narrative, and it wasn't until the last few days that the anti-BoJo coalition really got its act together (pundits, MPs, party grandees etc). So BoJo might have thought that he could persuade Sunak to be his Chancellor again, in the interests of the nation and its economy. And apparently he's been pushing the cleaner, more honest "BoJo Administration Mark 2" hard to doubting MPs - maybe he thought he could get Sunak to buy it.

[Girl from the North Country]

PS So I think it's a lie that he flew back to ask that, because I think he thought he could beat Rishi. Only in the last few days would he have realised that his position was weaker than he realised, and Sunak's stronger. So it was probably a "hail Mary pass".

[JanieM]

It's a puzzle how some people (Bojo, Putin, maybe Clickbait, although he seems to be a different type) can be savvy enough to get where they get, and yet deluded enough to think what GftNC suggests Bojo thought in her 11:47, or Putin thought when he figured Ukraine would be part of Russia within a few days of the invasion.

[Pete]

If this isn't enough for Scotland to go, I dunno what it would take.

[nous]

Johnson's statement was pure performance. He's trying to set up a path back into power. That's why he raises the spectre of the general election down the road. By claiming that he's the magic campaigner and that Sunak refused to do what is best for the party in the general election he's trying to prime the pump for them coming back to him if they start to struggle in the polls. And by focusing on his election successes he gets to sweep all of his scandalous behavior during the lockdown under the rug and start positioning himself as the savior again.

Exactly the sort of move I'd expect from a hollow populist fucktrumpet like Boris.